The present invention relates generally to the field of carbon nanotubes (CNTs).
Many envisioned CNT-based applications such as device interconnections in integrated circuits require directed growth of aligned CNTs, and low-resistance high-strength CNT junctions with tunable chemistry, stability and electronic properties. Significant progress has been made in directing the growth of CNT bundles, and utilizing them as interlayer interconnects. However, forming CNT-CNT junctions on the substrate plane in a scalable fashion, to enable in-plane device circuitry and interconnections, remains to be realized. Even in small-scale test-structures with overlapping CNTs created through nanoprobe manipulation and electrofluidic techniques, transforming the high contact resistance at overlapping CNTs to low-resistance CNT-CNT welds without destroying the CNT structure is a major challenge.